HC110 made simple.

I thought I had posted this to the articles a long time ago, but I guess I didn't. So for the archives and the children, here it is.

I like Hc110. Especially for roll film. I don't like the convoluted "working
solution" dilutions and sub dilutions, or the short times some of the dilutions
and sub dilutions create. It should be simple to use Hc110, like Rodinal.

If you care to research, there was a method to Kodaks madness when they
created the dilutions and routines for HC110, but they are of little
convenience for the darkroom enthusiast. I get more questions about
mixing and developing with HC110 than all other developers combined. It is
a great developer that doesn't need to be complex in usage, so I concocted a
metric dilution that goes by 50 (1+49) That means you use 1 ml of HC110 for
every 49 ml of water in a direct from the concentrate dilution.

Here is how to use it on roll film in an inversion tank, like Rodinal:

First of all, forget about saving and replenishing it. Mix up what you need, use
it, and dump it. It's so cheap under normal usage that saving it is fairly
useless from a cost savings perspective, plus consistent performance is
assured by using it one-shot.

Next, forget about an intermediate working solution. Mix it directly from the
concentrate. Use a small bottle and a baby syringe (available at any drug
store) to mix directly from the concentrate. Simply mix it 1+49 . Use the times
below as a starting guide (you may not expose the same as me, or may not
have the same taste in negatives, so these are only suggestions that should
get you in the ballpark to do your own tweeking)

I bet there are a few here on APUG who have purchased nails by the pound

Matt

“Photography is a complex and fluid medium, and its many factors are not applied in simple sequence. Rather, the process may be likened to the art of the juggler in keeping many balls in the air at one time!”

Ansel Adams, from the introduction to The Negative - The New Ansel Adams Photography Series / Book 2

Interesting so how do people build houses in other metric based countries, or have they simply stopped building houses...

~Stone | Sent w/ iPhone using Tapatalk

In Canada we build them starting with the foundation, then the subfloor, walls and a roof.

2X4s are still the same size and not 2 by 4 and a sheet of plywood is 4 ft by 8ft. And we did not move our roads around in the grid patern so they are still one mile apart not a kilometer.

I was an adult when the conversion took place and found it confusing for several months but when you use it regularly it makes much more sense. At one time though I knew what a good outdoor temperature was in Celcius but indoor temp in F as we did not change thermostats and in fact my home still is in degrees F.

If I can put a 150mm lens on a 4X5 camera I can work with both systems.

Several years ago I found Jason's 1:49 info and have been using it ever since. Thanks. It would also be useful if people submitted their times for other emulsions at 1:49 as well.

I don't suppose anyone has discovered developing time with this dilution for Tri-X pushed to 1600? I had to shoot a roll at 1600 today and need to get the results to the client within a day so I don't have time to do my own tests.

I don't suppose anyone has discovered developing time with this dilution for Tri-X pushed to 1600? I had to shoot a roll at 1600 today and need to get the results to the client within a day so I don't have time to do my own tests.

thanks!

Using the 1:49 dilution I developed Tri-X @1600 for 16 minutes, agitate every couple of minutes. It turned out pretty decent although quite contrasty. If I do it again I might try agitating even less.

Anthony, it seems like it is hard to fight the contrasty light at most concerts, which makes pushing an even slipperier slope. Nice results! My brother has a 9 Zero fat bike in Anchorage, just went for the first ride of the year today. Sounds like fun but I'd be hard-pressed to find enough snow here in San Diego.

Anthony, it seems like it is hard to fight the contrasty light at most concerts, which makes pushing an even slipperier slope. Nice results! My brother has a 9 Zero fat bike in Anchorage, just went for the first ride of the year today. Sounds like fun but I'd be hard-pressed to find enough snow here in San Diego.

Thanks! I was pretty happy about it myself, especially as I was shooting a 200mm F4 lens at 1/30 handheld.

We're still in the fat bike optional season around these parts, which is seriously late not to have a lot of snow on the ground.

Don't forget, that 1.5 ml of concentrate per sheet means just 48 ml of dilution B per sheet.

For this to be meaningful for developing a single sheet, you need a tank that will ensure even immersion and development flow with just 48 ml of developer - I don't think that such a beast exists.

This is an old thread, I realize, but I wanted to add a correction. I develop all of my B&W 4x5 sheets in Cibachrome 4x5 drums. These only hold 40ml of solution so I have standardized my HC-110 dilution at 1:39. I get perfectly even negatives with this set-up and have yet to process one so dense that it exhausted the 1 ml of concentrate per single sheet.